Seeing as the skyrocketing fees on the Bitcoin (BTC) network in the last few weeks are unlikely to be resolved any time soon, I have just pushed an update that integrates full support for Bitcoin Cash (BCH) on the donation page. You can now find two "tabs" on the page where you can select either of the coins.

BCH is essentially a fork of BTC that allows for a larger number of on-chain transactions. Since BTC currently has a median network fee of as high as $20, it is currently uneconomical for our purposes, at least for anything outside of very large donations. BCH transactions on the other hand can be sent for a fraction of a cent per transaction. While BTC is betting on "second-layer solutions" to handle the load, the lack of short-term scaling means even moderately sized donations now take a significant haircut, which is not sustainable nor fair for people who want to donate.

While BCH is not currently as widely accepted or available as BTC, the payment processor used by most server vendors is planning on accepting BCH early 2018, which means that we are going to beat them to it and start accepting it starting today.

BCH can already be purchased on some major exchanges like Bitstamp, while Coinbase is planning on adding it early 2018 had a fit of exceptionally good timing and made BCH trading available today. Many smaller exchanges and some ATMs have added support for it as well. If it is an option for you, we would generally recommend using BCH for now, until the fee situation on BTC has been resolved.

Note that BTC and BCH addresses are not interchangeable. Make sure to use the correct address for the coin you are sending. Our BTC addresses all start with 3... while the BCH addresses all start with 1... but this is not a rule in general elsewhere.

Since BCH essentially cloned the state and existing balances of BTC on August 1st 2017 at 12:20 UTC, we have done the same, and transactions prior to this date will appear in both tabs. If you had any available/unspent balance in BTC at the time of the fork, you now have the same balance in BCH. It should go without saying at this point, but this can only be applied, not withdrawn.

Is this an explanation about why the remaining BTC in my wallet went down from 0.000051 to 0.00002 in the last week? Just askin'It's not like the BTC I lost are worth that much (well, around 0.6 $ (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) )

Just speaking for myself (and dealing with/on Coinbase), I do now have a BCH wallet that's appeared with some small amount in it, but as of right now the Bitcoin Cash option is saying "unavailable" for purchases......dunno if that's just because it's still going through some startup stuff or if there's some other reason, I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens with it.

Is this an explanation about why the remaining BTC in my wallet went down from 0.000051 to 0.00002 in the last week? Just askin'

BTC balances were not affected by this update. The way these values is stored is transaction-based, it doesn't actually store your "current balance" anywhere. If you sum them manually, it would add up to the displayed 0.00002 left.

QUOTE(svines85 @ Dec 20 2017, 18:03)

Just speaking for myself (and dealing with/on Coinbase), I do now have a BCH wallet that's appeared with some small amount in it, but as of right now the Bitcoin Cash option is saying "unavailable" for purchases......dunno if that's just because it's still going through some startup stuff or if there's some other reason, I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens with it.

It was literally just added today, and [blog.coinbase.com] there is a note that selling and buying on Coinbase directly will likely be available tomorrow, depending on liquidity. It should already be available on GDAX, which is the Coinbase exchange.

It was literally just added today, and [blog.coinbase.com] there is a note that selling and buying on Coinbase directly will likely be available tomorrow, depending on liquidity. It should already be available on GDAX, which is the Coinbase exchange.

Ah, okay, thanks for that......there was actually a little popup window that came up when I first visited the site today, but I (apparently) didn't read it closely enough before I closed it and then couldn't find the info again (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

BCH seems much better designed in general (therefore this is really good stuff (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) ). Unfortunately software design will not protect it when the BTC bubble bursts.

Well, I mean.. it's basically exactly pre-SegWit Bitcoin, except with a larger blocksize and a different difficulty adjustment algorithm. It would be entirely pointless if the "real" Bitcoin wasn't hopelessly congested, and if it hadn't forked off, this would be a post about how we added Litecoin or whatever.

Besides, bubbles don't matter. As long as it can be bought and sold, it can be used as a medium of exchange. Though a bit less volatility would be.. nice.

Since BCH essentially cloned the state and existing balances of BTC on August 1st 2017 at 12:20 UTC, we have done the same, and transactions prior to this date will appear in both tabs. If you had any available/unspent balance in BTC at the time of the fork, you now have the same balance in BCH. It should go without saying at this point, but this can only be applied, not withdrawn.

Wha - does this mean you don't encash it until it's officially been donated?

Anyway, it's kinda nice that the change from my initial gold star donation years back is just about enough to get to quint stars... Question is if I should hold out further?!

Wha - does this mean you don't encash it until it's officially been donated?

We could theoretically spend it as soon as it has a confirmation, there's no actual relation to the balance you see on the site and what's currently sitting in the site's wallet outside that it was there at some point.

But, it made sense doing so because the site's functionality is designed to largely mirror how balances and deposits work on exchanges. Besides, I figured it would be a nice gesture, and it doesn't really "cost" us anything outside of the 10-15 minutes it took to write a script for the conversion.

PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy states that "You may not use the PayPal service for activities that: (2) relate to transactions involving (i) certain sexually oriented materials"; no definition is given for this. They may freeze accounts and deduct $2,500 per violation (as a "reasonable minimum") from any account at their sole discretion. Transactions for "sexually oriented digital goods delivered through a digital medium" are specifically prohibited.

Users who wish to use PayPal or other third-party services to acquire coins may do so via VirWoX.

Just a heads-up, at least for me and on Coinbase, BCH has indeed become available to buy now.....must've done it within the last couple of hours or so, it wasn't when I looked earlier.......but yeah, looks like it's good to go now.

Seeing as the skyrocketing fees on the Bitcoin (BTC) network in the last few weeks are unlikely to be resolved any time soon, I have just pushed an update that integrates full support for Bitcoin Cash (BCH) on the donation page. You can now find two "tabs" on the page where you can select either of the coins.

BCH is essentially a fork of BTC that allows for a larger number of on-chain transactions. Since BTC currently has a median network fee of as high as $20, it is currently uneconomical for our purposes, at least for anything outside of very large donations. BCH transactions on the other hand can be sent for a fraction of a cent per transaction. While BTC is betting on "second-layer solutions" to handle the load, the lack of short-term scaling means even moderately sized donations now take a significant haircut, which is not sustainable nor fair for people who want to donate.

While BCH is not currently as widely accepted or available as BTC, the payment processor used by most server vendors is planning on accepting BCH early 2018, which means that we are going to beat them to it and start accepting it starting today.

BCH can already be purchased on some major exchanges like Bitstamp, while Coinbase is planning on adding it early 2018 had a fit of exceptionally good timing and made BCH trading available today. Many smaller exchanges and some ATMs have added support for it as well. If it is an option for you, we would generally recommend using BCH for now, until the fee situation on BTC has been resolved.

Note that BTC and BCH addresses are not interchangeable. Make sure to use the correct address for the coin you are sending. Our BTC addresses all start with 3... while the BCH addresses all start with 1... but this is not a rule in general elsewhere.

Since BCH essentially cloned the state and existing balances of BTC on August 1st 2017 at 12:20 UTC, we have done the same, and transactions prior to this date will appear in both tabs. If you had any available/unspent balance in BTC at the time of the fork, you now have the same balance in BCH. It should go without saying at this point, but this can only be applied, not withdrawn.

Let me know if you encounter any issues.

Can I suggest you to use also Ethereum (ETH) for donation? It is the second coin in term of capitalization more widely accepted than BCH as much as cheaper. Also I suggest not to use Coinbase to buy BCH (high fee and also not a very reliable exchange)

BTC balances were not affected by this update. The way these values is stored is transaction-based, it doesn't actually store your "current balance" anywhere. If you sum them manually, it would add up to the displayed 0.00002 left.

It's been more than 1 year since I made my last transaction, so why did it display a different number (0.000051) before?

Also, on my wallet now results a BCH transaction from 01/08/2017 that I never did (and I couldn't even if I wanted to), so I have 0.00002 BCH in the wallet as well so, since it's intended, does this mean that if someone had a large amount of BTC unspent, with this update one will have the same amount of BCH on one's wallet as well? This seems like a large gift to me (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Can I suggest you to use also Ethereum (ETH) for donation? It is the second coin in term of capitalization more widely accepted than BCH as much as cheaper. Also I suggest not to use Coinbase to buy BCH (high fee and also not a very reliable exchange)

We already accept ETH manually if people are so inclined, but it works very differently from BTC/BCH so it's a much more involved task to add integration for it.

QUOTE(End Of All Hope @ Dec 22 2017, 17:30)

It's been more than 1 year since I made my last transaction, so why did it display a different number (0.000051) before?

I can't confirm that it did, but the current value is correct.

QUOTE(End Of All Hope @ Dec 22 2017, 17:30)

Also, on my wallet now results a BCH transaction from 01/08/2017 that I never did (and I couldn't even if I wanted to), so I have 0.00002 BCH in the wallet as well so, since it's intended, does this mean that if someone had a large amount of BTC unspent, with this update one will have the same amount of BCH on one's wallet as well? This seems like a large gift to me (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

The BCH history entry for 2017-08-01 12:20 is the adjustment to the balance you had at the time of the fork. And yes, if someone had unspent coins at that time, they did indeed get the BCH "for free", just like anyone else holding BTC at the time.